Why Segmentation Should Be A Priority in Your Email Marketing Strategy

Email marketing is about creating a relationship with your customer. That means your emails need to be relevant and timely for each customer because not all customers are the same.

‘Email marketing segmentation’ is the division of email subscribers into smaller groups based on criteria such as:

Geographic location,

interests, and

purchase history.

It’s used as a method of personalisation to deliver more relevant digital marketing to subscribers.

Segments are created so that the digital marketer can specifically cater to each different email list and that list’s independent interests, rather than creating one mass message for everyone.

With a digital marketing strategy focused on segmentation, you’ll send each contact what they want to see. People engage because you give them tailored information. Your digital marketing feels more personal and therefore gets better results.

Importance of Email Segmentation in Digital Marketing

If you segment your customer base well, you’ll be able to reach to your them on a more individual basis. Research states that email marketers who segmented their lists had markedly higher click-through rates than those who did not.

Your Customers Are Not The Same

Within every email list there are a multitude of different personalities. And even within these personality types every individual buyer is at a different point in the sales cycle. Sending the same message to all these buyers is sort of like asking them all to wear the same size shoes. The message (and the shoes) just won’t fit.

The truth is that customers won’t engage with a message that doesn’t speak to them personally. They want a message that has relevance. By segmenting your list and sending messages to each individual buyer you will be pleasing your customers, not losing subscribers, while boosting your business at the same time.

Personalisation Drives Revenue

Subscribers appreciate getting better targeted and tailored emails. Research has shown that the relevance of an email impacts positively on customer experience. But we also want to see business goals being met to increase profits. This is another reason why segmented campaigns are so cool – they just perform better. Digital marketers have found an increase in email revenue from segmented campaigns. This makes perfect sense because the more relevant the message, the more likely your subscriber is to act on it.

Segmentation Improves Sender Reputation

Sender reputation is a big plus of segmentation. The complaint rates from email list subscribers are a major factor in your reputation. And the best way to reduce your complaint rate is to make sure everyone on your list wants to receive your emails. Email segmentation leads to lower unsubscribe rates, better deliverability and fewer spam complaints. In the long run, this leads to better sender reputation.

How personalisation and segmentation can improve your emails

When setting out to create an email, most digital marketers spend the majority of their time selecting the offer and writing the copy. Less effort is spent making sure they deliver that message to the right person. And it’s rare that they take the time to personalise the email to each individual recipient. This is unfortunate because a great email is about the combination of great content with the appropriate context.

Email is a valuable channel because it allows you to create an individual message using personalisation and segmentation. Because email lists use your contact database, you can tailor your message in exciting ways.

How to segment and personalize emails

Determine the goal of your email.

Decide what type of email you are sending and the goal of the send. Is it a product update, website launch, or newsletter?

Identify and build your segments

Once you know the purpose and goal of your email, decide if you would like to change the messaging and content based on any variable such as age, geographical location or whether someone is already a lead or a customer.

Create your smart rules

You can use segments to create a smart rule in your email client. Using this, you can set up a rule to specify that only certain lists are sent specific content.

Write the content

Once the smart rules are created, you can create the specialised content that you want each group to see.

Personalise the sender address

This may seem like a very small detail but who an email is sent from is an important component of a successful email. Think about the emails that you receive. The person who sends you an email is probably one of the main determinants of whether you open it or not. The sender’s name signals if you should care and whether you can trust the message.

Ultimately, data combined with segmentation lets digital marketers send customers truly relevant messages. This means better results for everyone involved. If you consistently segment your list and send the right messages to the right people, your subscribers will realise that every time they get an email from you, they know the content will be interesting – because it always has been. To learn more about email marketing and digital marketing, sign up for the Digital School of Marketing’s Digital Marketing Course.